JOHANNESBURG – Despite Eskom’s best efforts to return additional generation units to service after the breakdowns that occurred during the week, the embattled state-owned power utility said on Sunday that it had not made sufficient progress to enable us to suspend load shedding.
Eskom said in a statement that it wished to assure the public that implementing load shedding was the last resort, in order to protect the national grid.
"In order to limit the impact of load shedding on the morning traffic peak, Eskom will start implementing Stage 2 load shedding from 09:00 tomorrow. This will continue until 22:00. Implementing load shedding tomorrow is also necessary in order to replenish the emergency generation reserves to better prepare for the week.
"Last night after the peak demand period Eskom teams successfully returned one unit at the Kriel power station, adding 475MW to the grid. The return of a generation unit each at Tutuka and Kriel power stations has been delayed, contributing to the supply constraints," reads part of the statement.
The power utility said during the coming week Eskom would continue to experience supply constraints. Due to the much colder weather, demand for electricity had also risen quite significantly.
"We therefore urge the public to continue assisting us in managing consumption in order to reduce the impact of the supply constraints. With your help Eskom can recover from this much quicker," reads the statement.
Eskom it would send out a communique should there be any significant changes to the current supply situation.